EV (electric vehicle) News & Discussion

Forums › Transport (cars, bikes and boats) › EV (electric vehicle) News & Discussion

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#3117665 18-Aug-2023 15:34

MikeB4:

Has anyone here had experience with the VW Multivan PHEV. I am interested in the vehicle as means of traveling around Aotearoa carrying mobility aids.

https://www.volkswagen.co.nz/en/new-cars/multivan-phev.html

Its only got a 50km (13kwh) battery, so if you're regularly travelling long distances or loads, you may not get a huge benefit from it.

SaltyNZ

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#3117670 18-Aug-2023 15:50

That is some very poor photoshopping on that VW web site.

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kingdragonfly

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#3117745 18-Aug-2023 16:48

MikeB4:
Has anyone here had experience with the VW Multivan PHEV. I am interested in the vehicle as means of traveling around Aotearoa carrying mobility aids.

I googled

"Fiorella" VW Multivan "PHEV"

but didn't get an exact match.

But Fiorella chair lift does with Multivans

jonathan18

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#3117777 18-Aug-2023 19:04

dazzanz: I might swap from Genesis when my contract is finished in November. The per kWh prices are comparable and I could use those 3 hours to get my place nice and toasty in the morning as well as charging the car.

I ran the numbers on my latest bill and, not counting any savings from the three free hours, the Z deal would have been $61 (or 24%) more than our Meridian pricing. Given those three hours are currently only costing us 0.1532 a unit, I seriously doubt we’ll be better off with Z. It’s not helped by a daily charge that’s 46% higher than Meridian’s…

MikeB4

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#3117863 18-Aug-2023 21:42

The video looks good but I am too tall to enter the vehicle in manner shown. The fusion in my cervical spines prevents me from ducking down.

kingdragonfly

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#3117867 18-Aug-2023 22:12

MikeB4:
The video looks good but I am too tall to enter the vehicle in manner shown. The fusion in my cervical spines prevents me from ducking down.

Option #1. Raise the roof on a Ford E-transit van

Option #2, You could try an EV conversion of a high roof version of Ford transit van. The doors are over 2 meters tall. These are really big delivery vehicles though. They're RHD versions, so at least you don't have to worry about that.

Option #3. VW Multivan PHEV: talk to a campervan conversion company to see if they can raise roof and install a taller cargo door.

Any tall roof van means you can no longer drive into some low roof parking garages.

Anything's possible with enough money.

Hammerer

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#3117886 19-Aug-2023 00:18

robjg63:

The media wont be terribly interested in this article on the fire in the Fremantle Highway car carrier a couple of weeks ago, but...

Sorry EV haters, big ship fire probably wasn’t caused by electric cars

A very interesting article.

Apparently the ship is now moored - it didn't sink.

The salvage company says the deck where the fire broke out was not the one where the EV's were and all the EV's appreared to be in 'good condition'.

While an EV may not be the cause of the fire, combusting EV/hybrid batteries will have prevented the fire being contained in a much shorter period of time. The main firefighting method is to starve the fire of oxygen. This does not work with Lithium Ion batteries because oxygen is released during chemical breakdown. That is why they had to let it burn out.

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jarledb

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#3117888 19-Aug-2023 01:53

Hammerer:

While an EV may not be the cause of the fire, combusting EV/hybrid batteries will have prevented the fire being contained in a much shorter period of time. The main firefighting method is to starve the fire of oxygen. This does not work with Lithium Ion batteries because oxygen is released during chemical breakdown. That is why they had to let it burn out.

Let me quote the message you just quoted again.

The salvage company says the deck where the fire broke out was not the one where the EV's were and all the EV's appreared to be in 'good condition'.

So you are saying the lithium batteries in the EVs caused the fire to be longer than it otherwise would have?

The message you quoted literally says that EVs appeared to be in good condition.

So which batteries are you referring to?

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Dingbatt

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#3117891 19-Aug-2023 06:08

jarledb:

So you are saying the lithium batteries in the EVs caused the fire to be longer than it otherwise would have?

The message you quoted literally says that EVs appeared to be in good condition.

So which batteries are you referring to?

I can’t link the video, but if you were to look up

“First burnt-out EV on Fremantle Highway revealed: Leaked photo!” on John Cadogen’s YouTube channel.

It supposedly shows a photo from on board the car carrier. There is at least one Taycan burnt out in the photo. He doesn’t claim it was the cause, just that there was at least one EV destroyed.

JC tries to prove he’s not anti-EV, by being anti-EV at the moment. But I think he has a point. IMO there needs to be a rethink of how things with large Li-Ion batteries are transported, as effectively the only way to extinguish them once alight, is to remove the heat. That is, immerse them in water and flooding whole decks of a ship becomes problematic.

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Hammerer

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#3118044 20-Aug-2023 04:58

jarledb:

Hammerer:

While an EV may not be the cause of the fire, combusting EV/hybrid batteries will have prevented the fire being contained in a much shorter period of time. The main firefighting method is to starve the fire of oxygen. This does not work with Lithium Ion batteries because oxygen is released during chemical breakdown. That is why they had to let it burn out.

…

So you are saying the lithium batteries in the EVs caused the fire to be longer than it otherwise would have?

The message you quoted literally says that EVs appeared to be in good condition.

So which batteries are you referring to?

I’m pointing out that the characteristics of the conflagration strongly support the presence exothermic reactions and, as it is called, the thermal runaway which is characteristic of battery fires.

That quoted report is also contrary to earlier reports, imagery of the fire progression, and imagery released/leaked from the aftermath.

Hammerer

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#3118045 20-Aug-2023 05:12

Dingbatt:

I can’t link the video, but if you were to look up

“First burnt-out EV on Fremantle Highway revealed: Leaked photo!” on John Cadogen’s YouTube channel.

It supposedly shows a photo from on board the car carrier. There is at least one Taycan burnt out in the photo. He doesn’t claim it was the cause, just that there was at least one EV destroyed.

JC tries to prove he’s not anti-EV, by being anti-EV at the moment. But I think he has a point. IMO there needs to be a rethink of how things with large Li-Ion batteries are transported, as effectively the only way to extinguish them once alight, is to remove the heat. That is, immerse them in water and flooding whole decks of a ship becomes problematic.

He makes such points in his unique manner which lots of people don’t like. He also annoys the auto industry and some civil servants by pointing out where they could do better for the general public.

I don’t see him as anti-EV but he gets a lot of flak because he thinks EVs won’t replace ICE (internal combustion engines) vehicles for several decades.

He’s strongly anti the lack of more comprehensive support for EV technology. He wants better safety regulations from the state, better upgrade and repair options from EV manufacturers and distributors, and better recycling options which will probably have to be state-subsidised to kick-start the industry.

alasta

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#3118053 20-Aug-2023 08:41

As a regular user of the Cook Strait ferries, I am pretty concerned about the fire risk. All it would take would be, for example, a fire started in a campervan, spread to an adjacent electric car, then the next electric car, then the next one, etc. The ship's crew won't be able to extinguish the fire due to the batteries' inherent ability to generate their own oxygen.

It's going to be fascinating to see how this risk gets addressed. Banning electric vehicles from the ferries would attract a huge backlash from the tribal advocates of this technology, but it might end up being necessary to prevent a catastrophic maritime disaster.

SaltyNZ

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#3118054 20-Aug-2023 08:45

alasta:

As a regular user of the Cook Strait ferries, I am pretty concerned about the fire risk. All it would take would be, for example, a fire started in a campervan, spread to an adjacent electric car, then the next electric car, then the next one, etc. The ship's crew won't be able to extinguish the fire due to the batteries' inherent ability to generate their own oxygen.

It's going to be fascinating to see how this risk gets addressed. Banning electric vehicles from the ferries would attract a huge backlash from the tribal advocates of this technology, but it might end up being necessary to prevent a catastrophic maritime disaster.

As a regular user of the Cook Straight ferries, I would think you would be more worried about the ferry breaking down, smashing onto a rock, and drowning before a tug boat can arrive.

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alasta

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#3118059 20-Aug-2023 09:34

Wow. I knew that electric vehicle advocates were a bit narrow minded, but this is so extreme that it actually puts me off buying one.

RunningMan

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#3118107 20-Aug-2023 09:45

@alasta not quite sure what you are referring to as extreme or narrow minded, but there have been multiple reports of breakdowns and similar on the ferries in recent times, but no reports (that I can find) of there being a fire on board (vehicle or otherwise). Based on recent reports, it would seem there is a higher liklihood of a mechanical failure event than an on board fire. I suspect this is what @SaltyNZ is meaning.

There's also an article on the prepartion of the Interislander to deal with EV specific fires here. The CO2 system may be ineffective against certain battery chemistry but it's one of several approaches they document.

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